The Windham Skate Park is building a new ramp to honor the late MacKenzie MacVane, a skateboarding enthusiast who visited the park frequently.

MacVane was a popular middle-schooler who died after making contact with an electrical wire while climbing a catwalk at the Eel Weir Dam in Standish last summer.

The ramp is being paid for with funds donated and collected around the time of MacVane’s funeral last August.

“This would have been his sixth year (skateboarding),” said friend Ryan Whitney, 13, of Windham, while rolling his board back and forth at the skate park earlier this week. Whitney said MacVane was the one who got him into skateboarding.

“He kinda made me,” said Whitney. He said MacVane simply told him and two other friends that they were going to become skateboarders and all three obeyed.

Matt Coughlin, 16, of Windham, helped design the ramp with a few other Windham students who used to land skate tricks with MacVane. They brought their idea to Community Services Officer Matt Cyr of the Windham police.

He said the different features of the ramp – the angled slopes and rails – reflect MacVane’s aggressive style of skateboarding.

They have also decided that Drew MacVane, MacKenzie’s older brother, will be the first one to use the ramp.

Josh Benson, 30, of Raymond, said he expects to finish building the MacKenzie Ramp by next week. He is a professional carpenter and a veteran skateboarder and designed and built the rest of the sloped structures that make up the Windham Skate Park.

“Over the years of skating, I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t,” he said. He said skate parks need to include beginner and expert areas so kids of all levels can use them. And the ramps need to be laid out so skaters from one area to another don’t cross.

Benson has also built seven other skate parks in the state.

“I like this one the best in Maine,” said Whitney.

Local carpenter Josh Benson, a skateboarder himself, is building a large new ramp in the center of the Windham Skate Park. Bonny Eagle hockey standout John Norton was one of many boarders and skaters enjoying a finally-sunny day at the Windham Skate Park on Tuesday.